Details On The Slave Trade In America

By Tammie Caldwell


In the United States of America, the slave trade thrived in the 18th century. The slave trade in America was conducted since the Americans thought the Africans were of a lesser value and they wanted cheap labor for their farms. Most of them were taken from Angola. Other goods used in the trade too were acquired from Angola. The death rate at first was very high but reduced significantly as the Americans learnt of better ways to ship them. North America had the highest number of slaves as compared to South America.

These slaves mostly went to work in plantations. There were very many plantations owned by the whites hence each plantation could not enjoy the luxury of many slaves. Therefore each plantation had not more than fifteen slaves. However, as time went by and more slaves came into the country, some plantations were able to secure more slaves to work in farms.

Unlike in other countries that had slaves such as Brazil and Dutch, those who were taken to American had a better life. There were less death rates and birth rates were higher too. Due to the high number of children born in slavery land, with time the number of slaves brought from Africa to America reduced since they did not need any more of them.

The slaves were both men and women. None of the gender was significantly more than the others hence they were able to reproduce naturally too. However, when it came to the slave market, women were cheaper as compared to men. Their prices would later escalate as the trade got even trickier and more laws barring it were imposed. Children became slaves where their parents were slaves by default.

Pregnant and nursing mothers worked equally hard as those who were not pregnant and the men. They were not able to properly take care of their children and they would die in most cases during the first year of birth. Those who survived were often weak and sickly. They would also grow at a slower rate as compared to the white babies and would often be slower mentally.

At the beginning of the trade, the slaves lived in remote areas close to their masters houses. These areas were inhabited by only a few slaves who worked in the plantations. These slaves were bought from those who imported them from Africa. Therefore those whites who were not well off owned a few slaves or none at all. Men were generally more expensive than women.

Due to the poor living and working conditions, they also suffered from a number of ailments. They hardly visited a doctor therefore those who could not get well naturally eventually died. They worked most of the time therefore had not time to take care of themselves anyway.

As time went by, the number of Americans who owned slaves went up. The south was also wealthier than the north and most of the people who owned masses of wealth lived in the south. The north however had more slaves, but considering the poor quality of work that they did, that side of the continent remained significantly poor.




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